For years, developers have poked, prodded, and packet-sniffed their way into building amazing tools and integrations with Plex Media Server. Today, we’re making that process a whole lot easier: we’re releasing official public API documentation, built using the OpenAPI standard!
Without further ado: https://developer.plex.tv!
Who is it for?
If you’re building something that talks to PMS, this is for you!
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Third-party clients that want to play content from a PMS.
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Tools and services that integrate with PMS for automation or enhanced functionality.
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Anyone who’s ever opened DevTools to figure out how to make a request to PMS!
Whether you’re building a full-featured client or just want to pull some metadata, this documentation should give you a much clearer path.
Why does it matter?
Until now, integrating with PMS has meant reverse-engineering endpoints or relying on scattered community knowledge. With this release, we’re reducing the guesswork.
The OpenAPI spec makes it easier to:
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Understand the structure and capabilities of PMS APIs
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Build, test, and validate integrations quickly
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Keep pace with changes as the API evolves
This is about making it easier — and safer — to build on Plex.
What is it?
A structured, machine-readable and human-friendly spec of the Plex Media Server API — publicly available and versioned using the OpenAPI standard.
This isn’t a complete 100% mirror of everything PMS can do just yet, but it’s a solid foundation — and one we plan to keep growing.
What’s next?
Well, it could be anything, honestly! A goal of us releasing official public API documentation is to put the capability and imagination into your hands, the hands of developers and builders to go forth and make the exact things that you want that we are unable or not planning to create.
There is a new section in our Forums where we highly encourage you to participate, test each other’s tools, or share them with the broader PMS community.
While we, at this time, are not planning on vetting or giving official “Stamps of Approval” on developer-built tools, we are planning to be in and around those forums. You’ll see regular communications from someone at Plex, you’ll see us offering suggestions or corrections, and if there are additional things needed for you to build exactly what you want, we’ll be listening and responding as appropriate.
